Charged Signs: Solar-Powered Street Charging Stations

Having your battery die: a constant problem for the person on the move in the city. It always feels a little silly to drag around cables to charge your electronics at the office, doesn’t it? The folks at Brooklyn-based design agency PENSA! have created a new concept that allows you to get your charge on outdoors.

Aptly named ‘Street Charge’, the idea is to attach a thin structure to existing street infrastructure such as street signs, powered by photovoltaic cells and batteries, allowing passersby to plug in their digital toys with a USB cable. To foster urban connexions, the structure also includes a small table to put down your phone and coffee on: the perfect spot for a place to chat. To increase safety on the street, the photovoltaic cells charge up a light at the top of the structure that creates a more inviting atmosphere, even after sundown.

This is certainly one design that we hope gets beyond the concept stage. Not only is it practical for those of us that forget to plug in our phones before we slumber, but, well, we love street furniture. Any excuse to slow down our urban pace, even if it’s just long enough to charge a phone to send an e-mail, is a small step towards making the concrete jungle a little more liveable.

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